1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to waste segregation apparatus for use in hospitals and medical facilities for segregating medical waste at the point of disposal within such a facility in preparation for further segregated disposal outside the facility. More specifically it relates to an arrangement having two uniquely identified and separately divided waste receiving cavities in a unitary container under a unitary divider lid operated by a foot pedal, each cavity having a moveable floor.
2. Background Prior Art
Applicant is aware of prior art waste receptacle devices. For example U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,308 to Culbertson shows a waste receptacle unit employing a liner retainer being provided for retaining the mouth of a flexible liner bag in an open position for receiving objects in the bag.
The following six U.S. PATENTS relate to garbage and waste receptacles having hinged foot activated mechanisms for opening and closing the lid: U.S. Pat. No. 1,174,136 to Filger relates to containers designed to provide airtight closures for such garbage receptacles as are to be placed therein; U.S. Pat. No. 1,714,332 to Ullrich relates to garbage and waste receptacles, and more particularly to improvements in the operating devices for their closures; U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,740 to Koda relates to a wastebasket having lid hinge and actuating mechanism protector; U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,966 to Craft, Jr. relates to a step-on wastebasket; U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,574 to Sosan relates to a pedal trash receptacle intended for use in public places; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,693 to Gillispie et al. relates to a plastic waste can for oily waste.
The following five U.S. PATENTS relate to waste containers with multiple compartments: U.S. Pat. No. 1,174,136 to Filger; U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,746 to Dickinson relates to a waste separation container; U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,641 to Martin relates to a refuse container with multi-position divider; U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,785 to Stamp relates to a multi-compartment container; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,312 to Vumbaca relates to a syringe container which holds both sterile and soiled syringes, separated by a dividing plate.
The following two U.S. PATENTS relate to waste supports for trash containers: U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,342 to Strawder relates to a bag support for trash cans; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,222 to Patey relates to a garbage container including a horizontally pivoting waste supporting platform within the housing.
Disposal of bio-hazardous waste, hereinafter described as medical waste, has become very expensive for medical facilities. For example, the disposal cost of medical waste, defined as wet/saturated with blood and/or body fluids, is $500.00 per ton, whereas the disposal of general waste is only $50.00 per ton. Furthermore, cost savings are available for recyclable general waste in the form of cost avoidance. However when general waste items are inadvertently commingled with medical waste, not only is the disposal cost increased, but the cost avoidance opportunity is lost.
In the past, attempts have been made to provide disposal arrangements for segregation of medical waste, just as there have been attempts to recycle household trash. Each of these attempts has taken a long time to take hold, and as of yet still show only partial participation. However, a particular problem in the medical waste disposal arrangement is that conditions in those facilities that generate medical waste generally place a priority on matters other than segregation of trash, particularly in operating rooms and emergency facilities. As a result, general waste gets commingled with medical waste, as operators do not have the time to take those extra mental steps to properly segregate the medical waste from general waste.
Accordingly, there is a need in the waste receptacle art for a new and improved arrangement for reinforcing the principles of segregation by limiting disposal arrangements to a unitary two-in-one container which is color coded for ease of disposal of multiple classes of waste to provide for savings in the disposal of medical waste which overcomes at least some of the disadvantages of prior art.
The following is an example of recycling programs and their financial impact for a typical 180 bed hospital:
1) Mixed paper: The sample hospital typically recycles 7,000 pounds of paper per month. If it were to throw that paper away it would cost $48.00 per 2,000 pounds, which equals $168.00 per month or $2,016.00 per year. In addition, at each pickup the hospital would also have to pay a hauling or pickup fee of $150.00. At the hospital""s current rate of paper recycling, haulage for the paper would cost $250.00 per month or $2,700 per year. Total projected yearly savings on mixed paper: $4,716.00.
2) Cardboard: The hospital typically recycles 18,000 pounds of cardboard per month. By recycling the cardboard it can attain a cost avoidance that is figured the same way as the paper savings. It would cost $432.00 per month and $5,184.00 per year to throw the cardboard away. It would also cost $750.00 per month and $9,000.00 per year to have it hauled away. Total projected yearly savings on cardboard: $14,184.00
3) Program for Sorting and Separating Medical and General Waste: The hospital""s program is tied into both xe2x80x9cplasticsxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cred bag trashxe2x80x9d. In the waste stream are two basic classifications of trash, bio-hazardous and regular. In the regular trash are found 80% of the recyclable material. It is assumed that large amounts of plastics are being tossed into their bio-hazardous, or red bag, trash. Once this happens the hospital is unable to retrieve the plastics for possible recycling. The solution to this problem is to educate its staff on proper separation and disposal of its red bag and regular trash. Disposal of regular trash is $48.00 a ton and $150.00 per haul. The red bag trash cost is a flat rate of $7.62 per container (40-65 pounds per container).
The sorting and separating program is directed to an operating room where there is the largest amount of red bag trash and where the area is controlled. The sample operating room had been filling 125 containers of red bag trash per week on the day shift. Once the sorting and separating program was commenced that number was reduced to only five containers per week. This added up to a savings of $914.40 per week and an annual savings of $47,548.80 for the year. The sample Biohazard waste hauler pickups could be reduced from 2-3 times a week to one time per week. The total projected yearly savings for mixed paper, cardboard, and the segregation of red bag trash at the sample hospital: $114,511.00.
The hospital in this example can see recycling playing a huge part in its waste management for the future. By state mandate, landfills are being capped. Residents are required to separate household trash before bringing it to local landfills and in the future may be asked to pay for all non-separated and non-recyclable waste. The next step may be a mandate to all large employers, including hospitals, to recycle a certain percentage of their waste stream. The program this sample hospital has already put into effect will benefit it both now and in the future.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior technology expressed above by providing improved arrangements for segregation of medical waste for use in hospitals and medical facilities. More specifically the present invention was directed to an arrangement for reinforcing the principles of segregation by limiting disposal arrangement to a unitary two-in-one container which is color coded for ease of disposal.
The present invention is directed to providing improved refuse disposal arrangements for use in hospitals and medical facilities for achieving substantial cost savings. In particular the present invention relates to waste segregation apparatus for segregating medical waste at the point of disposal within such a facility in preparation for further segregated disposal outside the facility. More specifically it relates to an arrangement having two uniquely identified and separately divided waste receiving cavities, each cavity having a moveable floor, in a unitary container under a unitary divider lid operated by a foot pedal.
A particular advantage of the present invention is that it provides a means for reinforcing the principles of segregation by limiting disposal arrangement in such facilities to a unitary two-in-one container which is color coded for ease of disposal. Cost savings are available for (a) recyclable general waste in the form of cost avoidance by eliminating commingling of general waste inadvertently with medical waste, to achieve (b) decreased disposal cost and (c) increased opportunity for cost avoidance.
The present invention is particularly directed to providing two uniquely identified and separately divided waste receiving cavities under one divider lid, operated by a foot pedal. In the specific arrangement of the invention one of the cavities is color coded red for medical waste such as found in medical facilities, and the other cavity is neutral (neutral being defined as non-red) for general waste which may include recyclable materials. Each cavity is lined with a separate disposable bag and each cavity employs a separate moveable floor, each moveable between an extended long bag position and a retracted, short bag position. The positioning of the moveable floor in respect to receptacle internal walls is determined by the size of bag selected, which in turn is determined by the waste usage of the locale of the waste container. An advantage of the C is that it provides for leveling of unequal bags in a unitary container for containing unequal amounts of medical and general trash material. Each moveable floor member includes a pair of outwardly extending tabs mounted on a slide block. Said tabs are spring loaded for biasing each tab in an extended position. Each tab includes a finger hole to be manually accessed for moving said tab between an extended engaged position to a retracted, moveable position permitting each moveable floor member to be disengaged from a first position and moved to a second position. In operation the finger holes of a moveable floor member are manually grasped between thumb and forefinger and urged together to a position whereby the pair of tabs are retracted inwardly from an extended position to a retracted position from a support member such as shelf cleats. In such retracted position the moveable floor member may be moved from a first position to a second position whereupon pressure on the finger holes may be released such that the tabs move outwardly to an extended position in engagement with a support, i.e., shelf cleats.
In the present invention, a barrier is provided adapted to provide a barrier throughout the full open and closed modes of operation of the lid. The barrier apparatus according to the invention may also include a sandwich channel portion into which the barrier wall extends when it is properly received therein. The purpose of the barrier on the lid is to insure that there is no inadvertent commingling of waste .
Inasmuch as the device employs a moveable floor permitting adjustment of the respective cavity to the size of disposal bag in said cavity, a user may selectably place the device in any department of the facility and make adjustments to the cavity size according to the waste flow of that department. The unitary trash container according to the invention may also include a lid and lid raising mechanism. The lid is preferably pivotally connected on one side of the receptacle outside of the perimeter of the deposit opening and retainer channel, near the outer channel wall. The lid is adapted to pivot between an open position in which the receptacle deposit opening is exposed for receiving trash, and a closed position covering the deposit opening of the trash receptacle compartment.
The present invention further is directed to a method for segregating medical waste from general recyclable trash. In order to facilitate segregation, the method includes the following steps for reinforcing segregation;
1) providing unitary receptacle means for accepting and segregating the deposit of multiple classes of trash in each room;
2) providing dual compartment means for segregated containment of the segregated contents,
3) providing color coding means for segregating waste;
4) providing barrier means for providing a barrier throughout the open and closed mode; and
5) providing collection means for segregated collection of the contents of the receptacle means. The method of the device is to reinforce the simplicity of properly disposing of medical waste. By properly disposing of the medical waste, the user will reduce their waste disposal costs at the point of origin.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a medical waste segregation device for segregating medical waste at the point of disposal within a medical facility in preparation for further segregated disposal outside the facility.
More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a waste container apparatus divided into dual compartments having a remotely operated top, an internal divider mechanism, all of which are color coded red or neutral depending on where each part is positioned, i.e. red if in the red medical waste half or neutral in the other half.
Another object of the invention is to provide a disposal apparatus divided into dual compartments for receiving plastic trash bags, each having a moveable floor, and each color coded red and neutral respectively, wherein said compartments are divided at the mid point by a lid segregator means.
A further object is to provide in each compartment, a moveable bottom to match the compartment size to the bag selected according to a daily usage factor such that the bags are disposed of on a high frequency, i.e. daily.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a two-in-one trash receptacle typically employing two side-by-side compartments separated by a barrier apparatus which operates to provide a complete barrier at all times between the two compartments.
These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments considered along with the accompanying drawings. The invention will be described for the purpose of illustration only in connection with certain embodiments; however, it is recognized that those persons skilled in the art may make various changes, modifications, improvements and additions on the illustrated embodiments all without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention